The Japanese newcomer was plunked on the first pitch he saw in the first inning, walked in his next turn and then hit an RBI single to help the Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 12-6 Thursday in an exhibition opener.

Fukudome answered all of one question in English afterward: “Is American baseball easy?”

“No!” he said with a smile, shaking his head for emphasis.

Mike Fontenot hit a three-run homer and tripled and Felix Pie homered and doubled for Chicago. Ryan Theriot had three base hits in the leadoff spot for the NL champions.

Much of the attention was on Fukudome. The 30-year-old made his debut in the United States as Chicago’s new right fielder and batted third after signing a $48 million, four-year contract in December.

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“It will take him a little while to get acclimated to the pitching but he got hit by a pitch and got a base hit to left field,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “Kosuke got started the right way. The key with him is seeing pitches.”

Before the game, Fukudome walked toward the Giants’ dugout, got the attention of countryman and pitcher Keiichi Yabu, removed his cap and bowed.

Fukudome drew some cheers in Scottsdale Stadium when he stepped into the batter’s box in the first inning wearing his bright blue No. 1 uniform. He then was hit in the right shoulder by Noah Lowry’s first offering.

“It slipped right out of my hand like an ice cube,” Lowry said. “The outing for me stunk. I was terrible out there. … I definitely wasn’t trying to hit him. I tried to come up and in. I was erratic all day. It happens.”

“I like to see a lot of pitches and I like to try out some things in spring training,” Fukudome said through an interpreter. “It’s still spring training and all the signs are simple. I really didn’t get one today.

“I’m happy that people are watching back in Japan.”

Piniella and his coaching staff were equally as eager as the Japanese fans to see Fukudome for the first time. A big crew of Japanese media chronicle his debut.

Fukudome is coming off right elbow surgery last August that kept him out of the Japan Series. In nine seasons with the Chunichi Dragons, he batted .305 with 192 homers, a .397 on-base percentage. His team won its first championship in 53 years on Nov. 2.

He was the 2006 Central League MVP, batting .351 with 31 homers and 104 RBIs. He won two batting titles and four Gold Gloves in Japan.

There was no Barry Bonds in San Francisco’s outfield—not that the departed and indicted home run king typically appeared in exhibition games this early, anyway. Dave Roberts played left field in place of No. 25, while Aaron Rowand made his Giants debut in center and batted the cleanup spot. Injured catcher Bengie Molina is set to bat fourth once he’s healthy.

Rowand singled to left on the first pitch he saw, following Randy Winn’s solo homer.

“He was taking over for Barry, I guess—a home run his first time up,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Kevin Frandsen began what could be a six-week stint as San Francisco’s fill-in shortstop while 11-time Gold Glover Omar Vizquel recovers from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee performed Wednesday.

So I took my car in today to get the tire fixed. Just as I suspected, there was a leak in the valve. They said they would replace it at no charge. So they come back out 20 minutes later and tell me one of the lug nuts is stripped, because the AAA guy put it on at an angle and they’re going to have to cut it off, which will cost $12. Not a big deal, but frustrating. They didn’t tell my Dad last week what was wrong with my tire, just that they didn’t find anything in it. So I’m assuming that it was the vavle on that one as well, which would mean valve leaks on three different tires. If this is true, it would behoove me to have them replace the valve on the 4th tire, just as preventative medicine. My Mom suggested I call NTB in Vernon Hills, where my Dad took it last week, today I went to the one in Mundelein. So I call them and this is part of the conversation:Jami: I brought in a flat tire last week and they never told me what was wrong with it, just that there was nothing in it. I was wondering if you could tell me what was wrong with it.Guy on the phone: How should I know what was wrong with it?!Jami: Well can you look it up?Guy on the phone: No! It’s already gone to corporate…blah blah blah.

Yeah, that guy wins at life. Thanks for your help. So I decided to have them replace the 4th valve anyway. They have to charge for this one. Fine, better than having yet another flat tire and having to deal with this a 4th time.

Hopefully everything will be okay now. The only problem is I just realised they rotated my tires last week…*sigh*…

So the 20s conference was this weekend. We had around 50 people registered, with a bunch of Chicago folk showing up to the Shacharit Shabbat service (including Beth, Igor, and Vita!!!!). Anyway, they said it was the largest 20s event in the history of the UMJC. There were 15 people from Columbus, Ohio, oner person from Kansas, and everyone else was from Chicago. Going into this conference I was remembering the onef rom this summer where nobody talked to me because they didn’t know me. I was hoping this one would be different. It was different because there were so many people from Chicago. By now I know pretty much everyone, at least a little bit. Friday night was just dinner and a short message from Kirk at Devar. Nikki and I showed up early at the hotel in case anybody from out of town needed a ride. They had a van big enough for everyone so they didn’t need rides. So we go to Devar and shortly after the service they say the van is leaving to go back to the hotel. Most of the Chicago people stayed at Devar to shmooze, but Aimee, Vlad, Josh, and I went back to the hotel so we could meet some new people. We get there and everyone from Ohio had gone up to their rooms to hang out with each other. There was a group of people from another congregation in Chicago that were hanging out in the lobby but they were just talking to each other and didn’t acknowledge us sitting next to them. So it was basically the five of us chillin, eventually noam and Shacahr came over. But there was one guy from Ohio that came to talk to us, and actually, he was raised Amish and gave us his testimony. It was really cool. I feel stupid now that i didn’t know this, but I apparently Amish mentality is close to Catholic mentality, as far as being believers go. What’s funny is this guy was doing a lot of the tech stuff (like sound, etc). He’s come a long way from being Amish lol. I left before I would have had I been staying in the hotel. Apparently I missed a fight between some guys staying in the hotel and our people pulling the guys off of each other. Oh well.

I came home really angry about the cliquiness. It’s ridiculous. The point of these conferences is so we can come together and know there are other people who understand, etc. In fact, the theme of this weekend was THREE STRANDS:Ecclesiastes 4:9-129 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?

12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

So, on Saturday morning, to hear them talking about that, it was just frustrating to hear that and everyone is like “yeah, so important blah blah blah” and they don’t even want to meet other people.

Anyway, aside from that it was probably the best service I have been to anywhere. Jason Sobel is a great speaker. I’ve never been so drawn in to a service before. It’s another reason not to be at Devar, because the services seem kind of…dead…yeah.

After the service we had to go to Devar for lunch. I had decided Friday night that something needed to be done about this segregation of Chicago people and Ohio people. While people were waiting for the van I decided to intercept some of them. I randomly asked a few people if they wanted to ride with me and they actually said yes. Unfortunately Aimee intercepted them from me, but at least they were talking to someone not from Ohio. Then after lunch back to the hotel I did find four Ohio people that wanted to ride back with me. Also Nikki, Aimee, Shoshana and I went to Jamba Juice during the free time and found two Ohio people that wanted to come with us, including one who had never even heard of it before.

The reason we went to Jamba Juice is 1) I was so tired and needed an energy boost and 2) we were told our dinner would be kosher pizza from a place that’s bad, so we wanted something to tide us over. Anyway our dinner wound up being Lou Malnatis haha. Nice kosher pizza! Also they had a February birthday celebration. Three girls from Ohio rewrote “Under the Sea” now called “Under 30” and sang to us. There were two cakes: a sheet cake for Josh and Mark’s birthdays, and an ice cream cake just for me but I only had a tiny piece, because I was full and it wasn’t from DQ, it wasn’t really good, but it was the thought that counts this time and I did really appreciate it:I thought I was turning 23, but apparently I was wrong lol. Although the candle on the other cake was a question mark lol. So I had made a wish and was right ab out to blow out the candle when that punk Josh decides to blow it out for me (does this mean my wish won’t come true? ). I guess everyone who knows me saw him do that and was like “Oh no, what is she going to do??” Can you guess what I did? If you guessed that I immediately put the cake down, ran after him, and put him into a wall, you guessed right!

After dinner we had two choices: go to the Kingston Mines for a blues show or go bowling. I wanted to go bowling, until I found out it was $10 for one game. But I decided to go anyway, because Jen and Slava were going and Aimee decided to go too, because we never get to see Jen and Slava, and they are amazing. So we get to the bowling alley around 9:30pm and apparently it doesn’t open until 11. Also, the people who went to the Kingston Mines wound up not being able to go, because there was a $15 cover charge. I would also like to point out the original plan was to go Whirlyballing. In fact, the e-mail that went out earlier this week said that’s what we were going to do. I’ve been telling Noam for a while to make a reservation. They wound up not even calling until a few days ago, then were told they needed to call two weeks ago HELLO!!! Nobody listens to me!! Anyway, I hope next time they actually think the activity through a little more.

So we somehow wound up going to Harry Caray’s. Which would be fine, except we get there 30 minutes before they close, with a party of eight, with 12 more on the way. Also, like three people ordered food. As a server I see this from the restaurant’s perspective. I was so upset that I was part of a group that would do this, but it’s not like I could do anything about it. I was so full but I got food anyway, because, again, I see it from the server’s perspective. I didn’t pay for my dinner, because it was my birthday, so I don’t know, or want to know, what they tipped him *sigh*. However I don’t know how I would have tipped him since several people ordered drinks and he didn’t card any of them, including an 18 year old. It upset me, because if I did that, and got caught, Red RObin woudl lose its liquor license for, I think, 15 days. And I think that’s really irresponsible. Jen and Slava wound up having to leave because Jen had to work early, so we caught a ride back with Noam. He had parked in a parking garage, and, upon driving through the gate, I had a terrible flashback to backing into a pole a few weeks ago *sigh*.

Thir morning was the closing words. Then I made sure to tell people from Devar that didn’t know that I was leaving the congregation so that I could say goodbye. Then some of us went to IHOP and I drove home for a short shnatz.

Except for the cliquiness and the social activity on Saturday night, I do think it was a good conference. I’m ready to be done with the midwest though. Over the summer there were really only people from the midwest and east coast there. I’m told the west coast is totally different, so yeah guess I’ll just have to wait a year and see. I did meet a girl from Ohio who is thinking of going to grad school at San Diego State, but not until Fall ’09…dangit, so close. Also, someone told me I should talk to a lawyer about getting out of my lease. So I guess I’m going to do that, maybe, but if I get out of it and they wind up charging Elizabeth double, then there’s no point and I just need to keep paying for it. I can’t do that to her.

Tonight was my birthday dinner at HaShalom. I had a lot of people RSVP as “maybe” and say they would get back to me and never did. But there were 10 of us and everyone was Messianic, so I guess everyone who said they woudl get back to me and didn’t probably would have been uncomfortable. Okay, so it was me, Shachar, Michelle, Aimee, Jen, Slava, Igor, Vita, Nik, and Lisa. Aimee and I were going to go see David Paige’s show afterwards but it didn’t work out. Okay so Aimee had to take Michelle back to her car at the hotel and she was going to take Shachar back to Moody, but was in a hurry and for some reason asked me to take Shachar back, so I said okay. As long as she tells me how to get to 94 afterwards it’s okay. So everyone wound up leaving except Nik and Lisa, because they got lost and came super late and I couldn’t just leave so Shachar and I stayed. I was really glad that Igor and Vita came. They left Devar while I was at school, so I hadn’t seen or heard from them since before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, after Nik and Lisa were done Shachar and I go out to my car. Nik and Lisa decided to walk us there, which is kind of funny, because Nik and Lisa are skinny and short and the exact opposite of intimidating, and Shachar was in the IDF and I’m feisty, so you would think it would be the other way around. But it was the thought that counts. Anyway, we get to my car and I look at my left back tire and it looks like it’s flat. I ask what they think and they don’t think so. I get up next to my car and sure enough…the tire is flat. I knew this day was going too well *sigh*. I get my phone to ask my Dad if there’s still a donut in the trunk, etc, and the phone slips out of my hand and FALLS UNDER THE CAR!! Not only that, but I can HEAR SOMETHING break. Fortunately Nik is small enough and awesome enough that he could reach under my car and get my phone. Fortunately the only thing that came off was the back. He was able to get that too and put it back together. And the phone worked. Thank God. So I call my Dad and he says there is still a donut in the trunk and it still has air in it. Shachar has changed a tire before so we decide we are going to try to figure this out so that we don’t have to call AAA. She can’t get the lug nuts off, because we don’t have a wrnech (she told me to check in my glove compartment…which Lisa happened to be holding at the time, since it was in my trunk, because it fell off a couple weeks ago lol). I don’t know why I decide we should call Igor, but I just had a feeling. So Nik calls Igor, he comes with a set of wrenches. They break the wrench. It’s time to call AAA. They tell me they’ll be there by 11:17pm (it was around 9:45pm when I called). Fortunately Igor and Vita live like three minutes from there so he says we can come back to his apartment while we wait for AAA. Thank God, because, if I can see my breath and my nose is running like nuts (though I still have a little bit of a cold so that didn’t help any), I don’t want to be waiting outside for AAA. So we tell Nik and Lisa they can go home and we go hang out at Igor and Vita’s for like an hour before they call. So they call, the guy changes the tire. he looks at my regular tire and can’t see anything in it. Meaning it was a random leak. This is the 3rd random flat tire I’ve had inb a little over two months, second in less than a week. Three different tires too. So when I bring my car in tomorrow, I’m going to ask them to look at the 4th tire too lol. Oy! Anyway, thank God I wasn’t by myself when this happened, I wasn’t driving when this happened, and we had a warm place to stay while waiting, and people cared enough to wait with me.

Fortunately I have off of work tomorrow too, so I get to bring it in and also send Kirk an e-mail letting him know I’m leaving.

Anyway, except for the flat tire, this birthday didn’t really suck. God had a funny way of showing me people care about me. But I think my car is ready to move too…

Anonymous: I’m in so much pain right now.Jami: What happened?Anonymous: I’ve been having like really hardcore sex for the past three weeks…

I’m watching Ace of Cakes and they are making a cake of girl scout cookies and I am upset because mine haven’t come in yet. Poop.

Not even counting deciding to leave my congregation, I’ve had a really…interesting week:

Monday my Dad had off so he wanted to take my car in to get estimates on certain dents. The plan was he would pick up my car while I was at work, take it to a couple places, and bring it back. When I got to work I realised I left my phone in the car, and since my Dad would be picking my car up, I needed my phone with me. So I go out to my car. I don’t what made me go in through the passenger side, but thank God I did, because when I get there, my right front tire is hissing. I definitely did not drive over any pot holes; I have no idea what happened. Unless it is the same thing as what happened in December, where the valve was leaking. Anyway I call my Dad to warn him my tire will probably be flat when he gets there. So he calls AAA, they put on a donut, he takes my car int o get the tire fixed and it turns out I need new spark plugs, a transmission fluid flush, some belts are fraying, my car needs to be alligned, and something was wrong with the brakes. Wthay? This all costs around $700 and we haven’t even gotten to the body work yet. This is my birthday present from my Dad. I have a feeling this is the last birthday or Chanukah present I’ll be getting from him ever. My car is only four years old, why is it falling apart?!

Wednesday morning I knew something bad was going to happen when I didn’t get stopped by the train on the way to work. Unfortunately I was right. I had a table pay their bill of $26.01 in cash. They said they didn’t need change. I put the red book in my apron…or so I thought. It turns out I must have just set it down somewhere and someone took the money. I looked through every red book I could find. Anyway it turned out that that was all the money I made too. Well I made $1, but only because the guy that was bartending knew about it and he told me not to tip him out. The good news is it was ONLY $26. Also, instead of them just saying “oh well” or whatever or yelling at me for being stupid, they bought me lunch so that I would at least have something. So I was very appreciative of that.

I’m still sick, but feeling generally like crap turned into a cold which has now turned into something with my lungs (who even knows) and still a little generally feeling like crap (though two Jamba Juice with immunity boost did help a little…see bottom of the entry). In fact I turned down a party of 10 this morning and a party of 18 tonight (the latter of which racked up a $200 bill) because I’m not feeling well. That would have been so much more money and especially after yesterday I could have really used it, but oh well.

Marni just started working at Olive Garden a couple weeks ago. The other day she was bragging about how she is making so much more money than I am. Then the next day she slips on ice and sprains/breaks her ankle. She is on crutches for at least two weeks (longer if it turns out to be a break) and can’t work. She has also moved back in here until she gets better since my Mom is always home and my Dad is never home.

The 20s conference is this weekend. As of Tuesday there were almost 45 people registered. The deadline was on Wednesday, and I’m sure more people registered then. Kirk got an extra room for me, Aimee, and Shachar. I need to figure out how to tell him I’m not staying there without telling him I’m leaving Devar.

On another note I tried two underground Jamba Juice drinks this week. Moonberry, which is apple juice, raspberries, strawberries, frozen yogurt, and lime sherbet. It was okay. Then today I tried Pink Flamingo which was so amazing: lemonade, raspberry juice, raspberry sherbert, frozen yogurt, and strawberries. Mmm so delicious.

EDIT: When I was in middle school I saw a really cool exhibit at Navy Pier. Some art students were given a project to turn Yugos into something else. I found pictures online. Click here to see.

@#^%$*%)@_$&%@#!!!! I’m not going to services at Devar anymore. I’m not as angry as I was this morning, because I wanted to take some time to cool off before I wrote about it. Anyway, I’ve been wanting to leave for a while, because I don’t agree with a lot of things Kirk says or does. The reason I stayed there is because there are so many people my age. Aimee and I have talked about leaving and I think she was getting close then Kirk asked her to lead the 20s group so she decided to stay. Anyway, aside issues I already had, on Wednesday night he made a comment to me that I didn’t like. He said (actually this comment was made to Nikki, but I was right there) that I have two Jewish parents and can’t read Hebrew and don’t know all traditions. What the heck? how is that my fault? And I was really offended by that. But I brushed it off. Also Nikki had asked him, the same night, about him not liking gentiles coming. He said certain people are examples, citing this girl Lisa and her boyfriend Nik as specific examples. Lisa has been coming for six months and has been teaching Shabbat School for the past couple months. There are nine kids in her family. She is the one who found the congregation and recently one of her sisters and one of her brothers have come off and on. Kirk has known the whole time they’re not Jewish, since he basically asks everyone the first time they come. Anyway this conversation was on Wednesday night and this morning I find out soetime between Wednesday and yesterday, Kirk told Lisa’s brother that he is no longer welcome because he isn’t Jewish and he doesn’t want anyone else from their family coming and Lisa needs to have a smaller role if she continues to come, meaning he doesn’t want her to teach anymore. Anyway, I’m really upset by this, and I’m obviously not the only one. I don’t understand how you can have such little respect for people and call yourself a rabbi. Or how you can be involved in the Messianic movement and expect to not have any gentiles IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT!! And if you don’t want someone attending your congregation because of that TELL THEM RIGHT AWAY, NOT SIX MONTHS LATER!!! So, anyway, I’m leaving, and I know other people will be too (not including the three 20s that left in the past two months already, one of which took his entire family with him). Anyway, it looks like this already small congregation is falling apart, but I won’t go into much more detail than that.

Right now I’m still planning on going to the 20s bible studies, since Aimee leads it. I’m not planning on saying anything to Kirk until after the conference next weekend, since he’ll be there. And if he winds up telling me I can’t come to the bible study anymore, then fine. And Nikki will leave too…apparently if I can’t come anymore it falls apart lol.HisPoetryBeast (11:31:20 PM): So you, Jami, are the make or break for the 20’s group

Haha. Anyway, this girl I met in one of the Messianic groups on MyFace just started coming this week. She was looking for a congregation and doesn’t know any other Messianics. So I feel bad for leaving right when she starts coming, but I can’t stay because of her. I just can’t go back to a congregaiton that has a leader that has such disrespect for people who did nothing to deserve that.

So even though there are 10 congregations in the Chicago area, now it’s basically B’Nai or nothing. But Nikki is there and her friend goes twice a month now I guess. It’ll be okay. I was already planning on going to oneg there today before I found out about this. I’ve been to maybe four services there in the last 17-18 years but they still consider me a part of their congregation. In fact, when I was there today, my birthday was listed on the calendar.

So now I will be saving so much money on gas and tolls, oh man. Plus I can sleep an extra hour and a half. I can leave at 10:45, instead of 9:15. Oh that’ll be nice. And it’ll be ncie to have good oneg every week. I won’t be going to a service there for two weeks, because of the conference. And I may not be happy with the service, who knows, but it’s really that or nowhere, at least until I move, who knows when that will be? I’m feeling really good about my decision. I just can’t stay at Devar.

Now on to other things.

The other day my GM told me I’ve exceeded his expectations and the manager who got me in trouble has been talking me up a lot at manager meetings. It’s been a lot better with him the past few weeks, but apaprently he just transfered to Woodfield, so okay. But my GM said he wants to see me take on more responsibility eventually, like updating stuff?? I don’t really know what that means, but okay. It’s funny because I’m not doing anything different than I was before, so yeah. Weird. Except the difference was I’ve been praying about it since that incident. So yeah.

Last week I waited on someone who came from Italy to write a guide book on American restaurants. No pressure, right?? Anyway, the guy he was with who paid said he was gonna give the Italian guy a lesson on tipping. Intentionally saying this in front of me so I could hear the compliment “She did a great job so we’re going to leave her 15%!” 15% for a GREAT job?? He then went on to claim the standard for tipping is 10-15%. Not in this country!! It’s 18%, but for a great job I should be getting a MINIMUM of 20%!!!! Boo!! Also a couple days ago I got a 10% tip from someone I went to middle school and high school with. I’m not going to say publicly who it was, but if you’re from Mundelein and you’re curious, ask me in private. And it’s not even someone I don’t get along with. It’s someone I’ve run into a couple times since high school and we have nice conversations. Anyway. Yeah.

I had the most genius idea ever. My phone is set to vibrate when I get a text. I often put my phone in my cup holder when I drive so I can get to it quickly if it rings. However if I get a text, I don’t usually hear it vibrate, because my music is too loud. So anyway, one of my coworkers brought candy for Valentine’s Day. I took a box of Nerds, with every intention of eating them. Then on the way home I realised if I put the box of Nerds in my cup holder and put my phone on the box of Nerds, the box of Nerds will rattle. Anyway, it totally works and I can hear it now even with my music on, unless it’s super loud. So much for eating those Nerds.

I will write about my fantasy baseball team later.

EDIT: Now I’m being told the reason Kirk doesn’t want Lisa’s family to come is because her brother asked to play bass in the youth group worship band. Oh my gosh. What is wrong with him?! Those gentiles think they can just waltz into our congregation and play their instruments??? What’s next, drums? Singing? Unbelievable.

Okay I’m officially signed up for fantasy baseball! I was really confused by Yahoo, but Steve Solari said to do MLB.com, because there’s a list draft, so that’s what I did. I had team names narrowed down to The Deer Ticks and The Cradle Robbers, but couldn’t choose, then I accidentally made both. I did a little bit of ranking on The Deer Ticks and none on The Cradle Robbers. I have 4th pick on The Deer Ticks and 8th on The Cradle Robbers. So we’ll see what happens. I guess you can have up to five teams. Winner gets $10,000, but only if your league doesn’t allow trading. I’m not sure if either of my leagues allow trading. The $10,000 sounds nice, but I think I might prefer trading, because what are the odds of my winning anyway? There are two things I don’t like: 1) Ryan Theriot is only listed as 2B, which is ridiculous, because he only plays SS. 2) You can’t draft individual pitchers, only an entire team’s pitching staff. I’m hoping I get my first pick on one and second on the other. Either way this will be interesting. And I may wind up doing Yahoo too, just so I can draft individual pitchers, but only if I can figure it out. If not, there’s always next year. Hopefully in real life baseball this season we won’t have to say there’s always next year…

I’ve mostly been working. We had some Hannah Montana madness for a while, since Lincolnshire was the only theatre within like a two hour radius that was showing the movie. I had a party of 19. The next day I had a party of 18. The day after that (I think) I had a party of 12 and it felt like nothing. Other than that it’s mostly been slow. I’ve been switched to mornings, since a lot of people have school. The few nights I’ve picked up have been even slower than the mornings, so I guess it’s better this way. I’ve been going to bed earlier, even by 1:00am once or twice. My ultimate goal is to be in bed by midnight every night, but baby steps lol.

There was also one night I picked up but it was snowing like nuts and it wound up taking me 50 minutes to get there (I was told to just take the night off because they were so dead) and about an hour and 20 minutes to get home. Yeah that was awesome.

I’ve been feeling like terribleness the past few days. I finished off my chicken soup and had to switch to deli soup since I don’t feel well enough to buy the ingredients and it takes so long to make blah blah blah. Saturday night I had a small section (two two tops and two four tops with leaves, meaning the biggest party I could have was a six top), so I was grateful to that, thinking it wouldn’t be that bad, since I was sick. It wound up being extra nuts though and I made $98 in tips after tipping out $18, so that was crazy, but nice for my bank account. Yesterday morning I wound up working five hours (I normally work like 2.5-3 hours on mornings) because three people left without rolling silverware so the new manager asked me and Molly to roll it all. There was a ton, but he bought us each a milkshake (I got strawberry banana mmm) for rolling it all.

Friday night I went out for Kristina Hager’s birthday. I hadn’t seen her in like three years and have barely talked to her in the last four, so I was surprised when she invited me. It was nice to see her though. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings, but the one in Round Lake. I wasn’t going to get chicken, but Shellie told me the real reason the Hooters in Vernon Hills closed is because they lost their liquor license five times (for serving minors) and corporate told them they were done, so I figured it would be okay to eat chicken from BWW haha. I tried the medium sauce and mango habanero sauce, both on the side. The medium was spicier than Hooters but was way too vinegary for my liking. The mango habanero made my mouth be pretty much on fire, but it was worth it. So good. We saw Scott on the way out. I said hi to him and he completely ignores me and says “Hey, Shellie.” Wthay? He hates her. He then asked me if I voted for Obama and that was the whole conversation. Then today he sends me a message on MySpace asking me to join his fantasy baseball league. He’s dumb.

After BWW we went bowling. We played two games. I got scores in the 80s both times. Not bad considering I haven’t bowled in nearly a year and couldn’t find a ball the right weight.